The present invention relates to a curving mechanism and a robot, and is preferably applicable to a tail or the like of a miniature pet robot imitating a form of an animal such as a dog, a cat or the like.
Curving mechanisms which are to be applied to inserting sections of endoscopes and the like have conventionally been disclosed, for example, by Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-320473 and No. 7-259725. an jointed curving pipe by a plurality of temperature control methods for shape memory alloys.
However, the curving mechanism which is configured to freely curve the jointed curving pipe by the plurality of temperature control methods for the shape memory alloys is inadequate as a curving mechanism for a tail or the like of a miniature pet robot imitating a form of an animal such as a dog or a cat since the curving mechanism requires a curving pipe which has a remarkably complicated configuration in itself and is expensive in addition to an expensive large control unit or the like.
The present invention has been achieved in view of points described above, and proposes a curving mechanism and a robot which have extremely simple structures and are nevertheless capable of more naturally expressing, for example, an autonomous curving action and the like of a tail of a miniature pet robot.
In order to solve such a problem, the present invention makes it possible to configure a jointed curving mechanism so as to be simple in a configuration, compact and inexpensive by fitting a jointed cylindrical member which can be curved over outer circumferences of a plurality of wires having connected tips and elasticity, and moving and controlling a plurality of driven ends of these wires selectively in an axial direction with an actuator.
Furthermore, the present invention makes it possible to obtain a curving mechanism which permits remarkably reducing the number of actuators, and is simple in a configuration, compact, inexpensive and optimum for application to a tail and the like of a miniature pet robot by fitting a cylindrical member which can be curved over outer circumferences of a plurality of wires having connected tips and elasticity, restricting a movable range of these wires in a direction perpendicular to an axial direction of the wires with the cylindrical member, and moving and controlling a plurality of driven ends on a side opposite to the tips of these wires selectively in the axial direction with an actuator, whereby these wires are moved in the axial direction relative to one another in the cylindrical member (a pulling operation and a pushing operation are performed simultaneously) and a tip of the cylindrical member is autonomously curved at the tips of the wires.
Furthermore, the present invention makes it possible to configure a curving mechanism which permits composing two wire portions of a single wire, is capable of carrying out a swinging drive and an autonomous curving drive of the wire in two directions perpendicular to each other with a single actuator, has a further simplified configuration and can be manufactured at a low cost by fitting a cylindrical member which can be curved over outer circumferences of two wire port-ions composed of a single wire folded nearly into a shape of a hair pin, rotating and controlling two driven ends of these two wire portions simultaneously in two directions perpendicular to an axial direction of the wire portions with an actuator, and moving and controlling these two driven ends reversibly in the axial direction.
Furthermore, the present invention makes it possible to configure a curving mechanism which permits composing two wire portions of a single wire, is capable of carrying out a swinging drive and an autonomous curving drive of the wire in two directions perpendicular to each other with a single actuator, has a much more simplified configuration and can be manufactured at a low cost by fitting a jointed cylindrical member which can be curved over outer circumferences of two wire portions composed of a single wire folded nearly into a form of a hair pin, rotating and controlling two driven ends of these two wire portions simultaneously in two direction perpendicular to an axial direction of the wire portions with an actuator, and moving and controlling these two driven ends reversably in the axial direction.
Furthermore, the present invention makes it possible to configure a curving mechanism which permits composing two wire portions of a single wire, is capable of carrying out a swinging drive and autonomous curving drive of the wire in two directions perpendicular to each other with a single actuator and has a further simplified configuration and can be manufactured at a low cost by fitting a jointed cylindrical member which can be curved in two directions perpendicular to each other over outer circumferences of two wire portions composed of a single wire folded nearly in a shape of a hair pin, rotating and controlling two driven ends of the two wire portions with an actuator simultaneously in two directions perpendicular to an axial direction of the two wire portions and moving and controlling these two driven ends reversibly in the axial direction.
Furthermore, the present invention makes it possible to configure a curving mechanism which is capable of easily carrying out a rotating control of a cylindrical member together with a wire around first and second centers of rotation and a control to autonomously curve a tip of the wire around a second center of rotation by a rotating control of a differential gear mechanism with a single actuator, has a compact configuration as a whole, is light in weight and can be manufactured at a low cost by fitting a cylindrical member which can be curved in directions perpendicular to each other over outer circumferences of two wire portions composed of a single wire folded nearly into a shape of a hair pin, building a differential gear mechanism in a gear box which is composed so as to be rotatable around a first center of rotation, disposing a slide guide which is rotatable around the first center of rotation and two sliders which are composed so as to be slidable along the slide guide in a direction perpendicular to a second center of rotation between first and second gears which are rotated around a second center of rotation perpendicular to the first center of rotation of the differential gear mechanism, fixing two driven ends on a side opposed to a tip of the two wire portions to the two sliders, rotatingly driving the first gear of the differential gear mechanism around the second center of rotation in the gear box with an actuator so that the two sliders can be rotated together with the slide guide around the second center of rotation between two stoppers of the gear box with two wire driving parts disposed on the first gear of the differential gear mechanism and configuring the first gear so that it can be rotatingly driven together with the gear box also around the first center of rotation.
Furthermore, the present invention makes it possible to provide a pet robot which has the above described curving mechanism built in jointed members such as a tail of the robot, thereby being capable of swinging and autonomously curving the tail of the robot in two up-down and right-left directions, expressing feelings, emotions and the like imitating those of a dog or a cat with more natural actions and being full of expressions.